Natalie Richards: Lose the orange portaloos at Cottesloe Beach for the sake of our tourists

It doesn’t matter if it’s visiting British relatives, Kiwi friends hopping over for the first time or eastern States tourists heading over for the weekend.

There’s one place they all want to see, ahead of the wine region, Elizabeth Quay or Rotto.

Old, young, single or with families, they want to go to Cottesloe Beach.

WA’s most famous beach, lauded by Lonely Planet as one of the top places to visit in Perth, is a consistent “must do” among the endless stream of visitors to come to my adopted city.

They want to see Sculptures by the Sea, they want to jump off the groyne and they want to see whether the waters really are as turquoise as they appear in countless travel blogs and magazines.

They want to sit on the grass watching the sun go down and, of course, they want the photograph.

No matter how many times Roger Federer takes a quokka selfie, it may always be second to that iconic image of holidaymakers posing dorkily at the front of Indiana restaurant with the white sand in the foreground.

They’ll show it off on Facebook and Instagram with the hashtags #toughlife #blessed #holibobs and garner likes from their mates watching enviously from home. It’ll take pride of place in photo montages plastered in hallways for years to come.

Except, now there will be an unwelcome photobomber. A stark orange one which makes the nose turn up just looking at it.

The portaloos installed yesterday at Cott will take centre stage for visitors to one of WA’s most iconic and famous beauty spots.

Photographs which may have drawn the envy of Facebook followers around the world will now draw raised eyebrows and scrunched up faces.

Make no mistake, this is a big deal to young travellers. A study by Expedia last year found a location’s ability to be Instagrammed was the number one factor for millennials when they looked for a holiday.

And nothing kills an Instagram picture quicker than a fluoro orange block of bogs.

Take for instance the Taj Mahal, which for the past year has been tainted with scaffolding. It’s now listed as one of the “places to avoid” on online travel sites. Same goes for Big Ben and the Colosseum, where renovation and restoration works are also underway.

Can you imagine Bondi or Whitehaven beaches being tainted by such eyesores? Of course not.

While we need to cater for our visitors’ call of nature, there may not be any visitors at all if the Town of Cottesloe and the owners of Indiana restaurant don’t settle their differences and provide more permanent (and less orange) facilities.

If they don’t, perhaps tourists will be taking their photos at Bondi or Whitehaven instead.